As most of you know, we spent last year in the throes of Rick enduring a painful back injury and surgery on Oct. 12. We got a new Magnum on May 10th and on the 30th, he was injured at work lifting heavy cable. The surgery in October repaired a herniated disk. Six weeks after the surgery, he started physical therapy. To that point he was healing well but therapy was rough on him. He was really sore after doing some squats and thought he felt something pull. It progressively has been getting worse and started swelling near the incision. It looked like half a golf ball was imbedded under the skin on bad days. He finally had to go for another MRI. It appeared the muscle that was sown together in the original surgery pulled loose and the swelling was caused by leaking fluid. We had to go back to Seattle and they drained off 18 ccs of fluid and sent a sample to the Mayo Clinic to be analyzed to see if it was joint fluid or spinal fluid. It was swelled back up just as bad by the time we got home. When the results came back last week the doctor was on vacation but the assistant called and said the results were spinal fluid. She made an appointment for this coming Thursday. Well the next day the doctor called in from vacation to check on patients and when he heard they cancelled the appointment and said come in Friday for surgery instead. There is a very small tear in the spinal sac around the column. So we will be back once again in Seattle spending the night at Swedish and hopefully this time it will go smooth. It has only happened once before and the woman it happened to had a successful surgery and recovery. I will work through Thursday and then be off Friday and the whole next week so you may see me posting during the day.<br>Anyhow wish us luck!<br>I thought you guys might like to see a picture of the shovel Rick was working on when he got hurt. It is open pit mining for a coal-fired electric power plant. It is one of the largest shovels built for loading trucks. They have 2 at the mine and there are only about a dozen in the United States. From the manufacturer's website:<br>The company’s flagship product line is the 4100 series of electric mining shovels, including the Bigger, Faster, Smarter 4100XPB, the powerhouse of the industry. The shovel carries up to a 115 ton payload in one scoop and can load today’s giant mining trucks in just three or four passes with the fastest cycle time in its class. Today’s shovels, powered by sophisticated PLC control systems, are as much about “smarts” as they are about brawn. P&H shovels are the workhorses of the mines, extracting and loading the ore body for haulage to processing.<br>Rick was working as oiler but is also signed off to run the shovel and has operated it. We found this picture on the union website and labeled it to give you an idea of what the sizes were. It's kind of cool if you like big toys. There is even a PortaPotti on the roof of the shovel on the other side.<br><br><br>When he is not on the shovel he is operating a bulldozer cleaning up around the shovel and keeping the surface level for trucks. When the shovel moves the dozers push those tires with the power cable on them and the cable snakes out over the cab of the dozer. This all has to be carefully coordinated.<br><br><br><br><br>oh yeah, that's going in the blog

Thanks guys that always helps, Michael<br>Trog it's part of the job but he thinks the pulley should be down on the tire instead of up higher and wrote that in the report but doesn't think it has been changed.<br><br>Generous offer Steve, my uncle seems to have the same thought.<br><br>oh yeah, that's going in the blog

#263395 - 01/22/0605:53 PMRe: We are in for it again(big pic)
[Re: iRock]

Anonymous
Unregistered

Sure wish y'all the best of luck and a successful recovery.<br><br>Remind him how lucky he is to have you to put up with him, then sneak Puppy into recovery, wearing his chewed up glasses.<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>[color:blue]And I'm the one that jaded you . . .</font color=blue>

Best wishes and best of luck, Shelli.<br><br>And don't worry about Steve getting too tired of the MG. I can share duties with him. It's a burden I know, but anything for a friend!<br><br>. . . . . Here's lookin' at [color:red]you</font color=red> kid.

Ah, Shel...I'm so sorry to read this. I hope all goes well the corrective surgery, I'll be thinking good thoughts for you both come Friday. <br><br>Missed your presence at Expo last week, perhaps next year?<br><br>

Thanks Lesh everything has been on hold. It's nerve wracking to say the least. I really missed going, but saw some pictures at YML. A wedding huh? How cool. Didn't see any Cupertino pics. We will attend again but not sure when.<br><br>oh yeah, that's going in the blog

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